Plan ahead for weekend northbound I-5 lane closures heading into Seattle
SEATTLE -- If you can avoid coming into Seattle this weekend from West Seattle or the South Sound, do it.
WSDOT says crews will be shutting down lanes in a section of northbound Interstate 5 starting Friday, April 20 - Monday, April 23.
Contractor crews will reduce northbound I-5 from four to two lanes between the West Seattle Bridge and Olive Way in downtown Seattle. They will replace worn and aging bridge expansion joints and fix portions of the concrete.
"I-5 is now more than 50 years old, it was built back in the 1960s and they thought it would hold up for about 25 years before they needed to do major work on it," said WSDOT spokesperson Tom Pearce. "It turns out it's held up really well for 50 years, but now the time has come, especially in the areas where we're working this weekend - if you're driving along there, and traffic's a little slow you can actually look out and see rebar. You can see ruts in the road and we need to take care of those so we create a good, long-lasting driving surface and it'll be safe for drivers for decades to come. "
Here are the details from WSDOT:
Several lanes and ramps will begin to close 8 p.m. Friday night, April 20, and reopen for the morning commute by 5 a.m. Monday morning, April 23:
- Two lanes of northbound I-5 will remain open between the West Seattle Bridge and Olive Way from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
- A single lane will remain open each night from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
- The Express Lanes will remain open in the northbound direction all weekend.
Ramp closures
The following ramps will be closed during the weekend construction:
- Northbound I-5 off-ramp to the West Seattle Bridge, Spokane Street and Columbian Way
- Columbian Way on-ramp to northbound I-5
- Westbound I-90 on-ramp to northbound I-5
- Eastbound I-90/Edgar Martinez Drive on-ramp to northbound I-5
- Dearborn Street on-ramp to northbound I-5
- University Street on-ramp to northbound I-5
- Cherry Street on-ramp to northbound I-5
Additional weekend lane closures
This is the first of at least six weekends of northbound I-5 lane reductions between the West Seattle Bridge and SR 520. Two of the six weekends include full closures of northbound I-5. Scheduled weekends include:
- April 27-30: Two lanes open
- May 11-14: Two lanes open
- May 18-21: Full northbound I-5 closure
- June 1-4: Full northbound I-5 closure
- July 13-16: Two lanes open
Some of the scheduled work is weather dependent and could be postponed due to rain.